I'm pretty sure that almost everyone had their first taste of a cake pop at Starbucks. Yeah, you know the ones I'm talking about too. The pinkalicious birthday cake flavor of pure heaven on a stick... and hell on your thighs.

I've attempted to make any versions of these over the years, and I will say that they are quite easy to make, but also very time consuming. It's definitely a labor of love though; mindless work that takes just about forever to do with a phenomenal end result.

And what better to devote your labor of love to other than your adorable child, right? My little girl is absolutely stuck on cake pops, so I figured it was long since time to get another of her favorites out there.

I decided to make these cake pops for New Year's Eve this year, so I went with a traditional vanilla flavor and some gold glittery decorations. Pretty nifty right? I mean... who doesn't enjoy the thought of eating sparkles and gold? It just makes you feel so fancy.

Pinkies up!

Of course, these are skinny cake pops. So they aren't made in the same traditional way that most others are; with the cake being baked, broken down, and then mixed with frosting to form a moist ball of cake.

Erf. No thanks. I wanted to start my year off right and without feeling as if I needed to go jog around the block a few dozen times to stave off the guilt.

No, no. These are baked up in a cake pop tin just as any cake or cupcake would be and left alone as just that; cake on a stick and dipped in chocolate.

This recipe makes quite a few, so I sent leftovers home with my mom and dad, as per the usual protocol around here. They then took the container of about half of these bad boys to a local brewery which is where they were all too quickly gobbled up and thoroughly enjoyed from what I was told the next day.

It always makes me feel good when my treats are a hit, especially when they are my skinny and/or healthy versions and no one even notices!

I like to use the crock pot method for this because you don't have to worry about burning your chocolate! You just set it and forget it.

CROCK POT CHOCOLATE MELTING METHOD:

Fill two mason jars with some of the chopped chocolate and place the jars into the base of a slow cooker.

Carefully add water to the base of the crock pot to reach about halfway up the jars.

DO NOT let ANY water get into the chocolate. If water gets into the chocolate it'll seize up and you don't want that!

Keep the lid off of the cock pot up and turn it up to high.

Allow the chocolate to set in the jars with the lid still off of the crock pot, stirring occasionally to help melt.

It takes about an hour or so for the chocolate to melt this way.

Continue to add more chopped chocolate as it melts and makes room for more.

Once the cakes have cooled and your chocolate is melted and ready, remove the cakes from the fridge.

If you need to, use some kitchen shears to cut any ridges around the outside of the cake ball off.

Dip the tip of a cake pop stick into the melted chocolate about 1/4-1/2" and then poke into your cake ball nearly all the way through, but not completely. Place it stick down into the styrofoam to let the chocolate dry to bond the cake to the stick.

Rinse and repeat for each cake pop.

When you have them all primed and ready to go, return to the first one you prepared and carefully dip it cake first into the melted chocolate.

Tap excess off back into the mason jar and place the pop back into it's place on the styrofoam.

Yeah, you might lose some in the chocolate as you go. Just scoop the cake out with a fork and set it aside for a little taste test later.

I worked in batches of 4-8, adding decorations in between when the chocolate was starting to set but not quite fully hard yet either.

Allow the cake pops to sit while the chocolate hardens; about an hour or so.